The Fishermen - From Idleness to Faith (John 21:1-14 Jeff Kliewer)

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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org The Fishermen - From Idleness to Faith

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Women, each of us have retreats coming up in April up at Pocono Bible Camp.
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The men's retreat is the 12th to 14th and the women's retreat I think is around the 24th to the 26th in there somewhere.
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But please try to make that if you can, whichever weekend that is. Also at the
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Pocono Mountain Bible Camp. We have a special dinner social here at the church on March 2nd for married couples.
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So only married couples are allowed to be a part of this. It is a special social event on March 2nd here at the church.
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So please mark your calendar, save the date. Does somebody have these little flyers? You getting these on your way in?
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Good. That's got the information. If not, try to grab one of these before your way out. Next, I see
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Rob walking in. He, Rob is going to lead for us a special prayer night for Israel.
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We need to be praying for Israel because they're obviously going through great trials right now.
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So on February the 18th, it's a regular Sunday night prayer meeting at 6 p .m.
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But the whole thing will be focused on praying for Israel. So please come. Rob will give a short teaching and lead us into a time of prayer for Israel.
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And lastly, don't you love the exciting updates from Hamilton in Malawi?
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Well, today we have something very special. It is a two -minute video that Hamilton filmed just for us to say thank you to Cornerstone and to show the progress of the orphanage that is being built as a girl's safe house.
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Let's watch. This is an exciting moment for me, but also for you as a church as well, towards the project that we have just started.
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So I'll show you some of the photos about the foundation, length of foundation.
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But now today I want to show you something different. This project is coming up so fast, building the
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Cornerstone safe home for the girls. So I know pastor told you that we have named the home in honor of the church
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Cornerstone, which is amazing for me, but also amazing for the church as well.
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So I just want to show you where we are now. We are almost going to the window level.
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And the support that you have sent will take us all the way to loofing the house and putting the windows as well.
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So we have much work to do inside the house. So I'm really happy and faithful towards the donations that you're sending so that we can get this home done this year.
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It's coming up so fast. Hopefully by June, we might be done with the house.
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So I really want to thank you for all your support. And I really want to ask you to keep praying for us as we are doing this project.
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May God bless you. I can't tell for sure on the video, but it looks to me like they built a wall around the safe house.
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So very cool what God is doing. And what a blessing that we have an opportunity to be a part of it. Hey, he asked for prayer.
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Do you guys want to do that? Let's pray right now. So gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for sending
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Hamilton for this great work that you have called him to do. And we thank you,
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Lord, that we can be a sending church, that we can stand behind him as a missionary, that we support him through prayer and giving for his work, but also then to support this project,
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Lord, the building of a safe house for girls. And Lord, thank you that it has been named Cornerstone.
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And we thank you that we would be so privileged to be a part of this in that way. Now we ask Lord that you would establish the work of Hamilton's hands.
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Yes, Lord, establish the work of his hands. We pray that this house would be completed and that it would give safety and discipleship in Christianity to these many girls that need a safe house.
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So we're asking that this be done through the power of Jesus Christ. And we're committing that work to you.
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Thank you, Lord God. We love you and we praise you for that. And now Lord, as we begin to worship your name, we recognize that you are worthy of every song that we could ever sing to you.
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Help us to bring our best today. Help us to to work in a sense, to bring our minds attention, our spirits in devotion to you, that we would not come flippantly to this time of worship, but that we would bring our best in Jesus name.
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Amen. Satan's servants, hosts of heaven, all creation, praise the name of the
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Lord night and morning. Sing his glory now and forevermore.
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Earthly kingdoms, all dominions, bow before him, praise the name of the
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Lord. None as holy, none as worthy, now and forevermore.
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Crowned with adoration, he is high above the nations, who is like the
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Lord our God. Who is like the Lord our
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God. Our Lord Jesus, all our weakness, to redeem us, praise the name of the
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Lord. In his kindness, he will keep us now and forevermore.
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Crowned with adoration, he is high above the nations, who is like the
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Lord our God. Raised from the ashes, he has turned our grief to gladness, who is like the
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Lord our God. Who is like the Lord our
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God. High and holy, meek and lowly, there is no one like you.
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Our Messiah here beside us, there is no one like you.
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High and holy, meek and lowly, there is no one like you.
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Our Messiah here beside us, there is no one like you.
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Crowned with adoration, he is high above the nations, who is like the
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Lord our God. Raised from the ashes, he has turned our grief to gladness, who is like the
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Lord our God. Who is like the Lord our
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God. There is no one like our God.
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There is no one like our God. Amen, amen.
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As we stand here worshiping him this morning, we know that there is no one like our
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God. He took all the blame on the cross to redeem us because he loved us.
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This morning let's focus on the cross. To see the dawn of the darkest day.
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Based on the road to Calvary.
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Tried by sinful men, torn at meat and then nailed to a cross of woe.
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This the power of the cross.
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Christ became sin for us.
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Took the blame, bore the wrath.
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We stand forgiven at the cross.
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Amen.
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Crowned in your blood, say now.
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This the power of the cross.
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Christ became sin for us.
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Took the blame, bore the wrath.
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We stand forgiven at the cross.
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Daylight flees, now the ground beneath quakes as his maker bows his head.
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Curtain torn in two, dead as ways to lie, finish the victory cry.
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This the power of the cross.
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Christ became sin for us.
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Took the blame, bore the wrath.
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We stand forgiven at the cross.
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Oh, to see my name written in the wounds.
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For through your suffering I am free.
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Death is crushed to death, life is blind to it.
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On through your selfless love.
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This the power of the cross.
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Son of God, sin for us.
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What a love. What a sweet sin.
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Forgiven at the cross. Lord, we do stand before you, before the cross, the
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Son of God slain for us. Lord, we know it's by your grace.
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Your grace, I am redeemed. By your grace,
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I am restored. And now because of your love,
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I can freely walk side by side. You helping me through every step of our journey here.
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And then into your arms, that final day. We are so thankful,
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Lord. Your grace that leads the sinner home to life forever.
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And sings the song of righteousness by God and not by man.
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Your grace that reaches far and wide to every tribe and nation.
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Has called my heart to enter in the joy of your salvation.
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By grace, I am redeemed. By grace,
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I am restored. And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my
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Lord. Grace that I cannot explain.
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Not by my earthly wisdom. The prince of life without a stake was traded for this sinner.
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By grace, I am redeemed. By grace,
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I am restored. And now I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my
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Lord. Waves rise up and overflow.
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My song resound forever. For grace will see me welcome home to all beside my
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Savior. By grace, I am redeemed.
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By grace, I am restored. And now
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I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my
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Lord. By grace, I am redeemed.
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By grace, I am restored. And now
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I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my
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Lord. By grace, I am redeemed.
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By grace, I am restored. And now
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I freely walk into the arms of Christ, my
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Lord. Brothers and sisters,
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Sunday is still my favorite day. And today we have a special Sunday as we celebrate the Lord's communion, the
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Lord's table. Jesus was the one that instituted communion.
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And when Jesus instituted communion, he taught his disciples. And then the disciples taught the early church.
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And we know from the book of Acts, chapter 2, that the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
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So they were breaking bread. And then they taught other disciples to do the same. And then all throughout church history, we've been gathering and breaking bread.
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And here we are today, gathering and breaking bread. And I have a feeling that we'll be doing that until Jesus comes back.
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And Jesus also promised that he wasn't going to take the cup, the fruit of the vine, until he drank it new in the new kingdom and new earth in his father's kingdom.
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So today, I want you guys to take three looks with me. The first look is back at the cross, the cross of Calvary.
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As we look back at the cross when we take communion, we think of the death of Jesus. So when we take communion, the death of Jesus is proclaimed.
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We think of Jesus' body being broken for us. We think of his blood, his precious blood spilled for us.
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And then the other look is to look within, examine ourself. We don't want to take communion in an unworthy manner.
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And also examine whether we're really believers. Only believers should be taking communion. If you're here today and you're not a believer, don't feel too embarrassed, but just let the cup go by.
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But if you are a believer and you do believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, then please take the cup with us and eat the bread with us.
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The next look I want you guys to look at is looking ahead to Jesus' return when we take the cup.
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Because we'll be doing this until he returns, and we really do believe that Jesus will return one day.
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So those three looks. So cross, within, and look ahead to Jesus' coming.
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Okay, so ushers, can you please come forward? Father God, thank you so much that we can take communion at your table.
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We pray that you would bless it to our bodies as we think of your body that was broken for us and your precious blood that was spilled for us.
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We look in ourselves and we confess any sin towards you. And we thank you for forgiving our sins and being just and loving us to forgive our sins.
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We thank you for the sacrifice. We thank you for giving our sins. And we look ahead to your coming and we look ahead to your kingdom that we may do this with you in your kingdom as well.
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We thank you in Jesus' name. Now as they were eating,
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Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said,
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Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying,
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Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
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That was a special moment for us in the life of our church because, as most of you know,
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Tim Robinson was just installed as an associate pastor a few weeks ago, so this was his first time administering communion to the church body.
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So a very special moment for us as a church. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children.
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Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.
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Yes, establish the work of our hands. In Jesus' name. Amen. Tim Tebow was the original football kneeler.
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He would take a knee after scoring a touchdown or some great thing that happened in order to give glory to God for what
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God did through him in that play. He used to wear 413 under his eyes.
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You remember that? Written in the face paint, which represented Philippians 413, his life verse,
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I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. He won the
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Heisman Trophy in 2007. His team that he quarterbacked won two national championships, two
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BCS national championships, and earned him the MVP honors in the 2009 title game.
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He holds five or held five NCAA records. Tim Tebow was a football phenom.
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But if I could describe what made the man, I would do so in one word, in one name,
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Bob. Not referring to any of the Bobs in our church, of which there are many, we have a lot of Bobs, but referring to his father,
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Bob Tebow. Bob Tebow taught his son from the youngest age the value of work.
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He was not like an Egyptian taskmaster. We read in Exodus chapter one, the taskmasters who had enslaved the
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Israelites and drove them with the whip. These were dehumanizing and in fact evil in their operation.
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But Bob Tebow was the opposite of that. He instilled in young Timmy the love of work.
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He taught him to set goals which seem almost unattainable, and then to love the process it takes to attain those.
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To set out every step that it would require to reach these goals, and then to embrace the pain of work.
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The truth is we're going to feel pain either by hard work or by disappointment.
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I would rather have the pain of hard work that results in something positive than the pain of looking back on a life that accomplishes nothing.
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How about you? Tim Tebow taught that, and then he taught, I'm sorry, Bob Tebow taught
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Timmy this, and then he taught him to expect rewards. Expect that there would be result for his work.
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To entrust those things to God, but to strive after the rewards that come from hard work.
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The result, of course, speaks for itself. How would I know this about Bob Tebow?
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How would I know how Bob Tebow parented his children? Well, by God's grace, our lives intersected through my wife,
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Jen. In the year 2001, when young Tim Tebow was only 12 years old, going to football camp in Florida, my wife had joined a mission team that went to the
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Philippines to preach the gospel all across that huge island. And Bob Tebow was the one running those trips.
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He ran the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association. He would take teams from America to go to the
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Philippines and preach the gospel. Well, one day, Bob Tebow said to Jen, this
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Sunday morning, I'll have you sing Great is Thy Faithfulness in front of a church.
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And my wife said, oh, I'm not a singer. And Bob Tebow said, oh, you can do it.
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And her response was something to the effect of, no, not going to do it.
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That's not me. Not a singer. Now, many of you have seen my wife up here as part of the worship team from time to time, singing in front of people.
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But at this point in her life, in 2001, she was a young adult and she had never stood in front of a church to sing
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Great is Thy Faithfulness. But Bob Tebow lovingly drove her to take a step of faith, to do some work that would require a great effort on her part, great courage to do something that was entirely out of her comfort zone.
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And due to the prodding, shall we say, of Bob Tebow, my wife stood up and sang.
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And in that, felt the reward, felt the filling of the Holy Spirit, the peace of God that only comes when we step out in faith.
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Bob Tebow was like this on the mission field. Everyone knew that when you go on a
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Bob Tebow evangelistic mission trip, you better be prepared to wake up at the crack of dawn, get on a jeepney, go from school to school preaching the gospel and crash into a bed late at night.
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You have to be willing to work, work for the sake of the name. Bob Tebow taught his son
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Timmy to work since he was young. And the results, the proof is in the pudding.
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Now as Christians, I believe we need to be reminded of how great a salvation was won for us by the sweaty, bloody work of the
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Lamb of God. And if we value and treasure the work that Christ has finished on our behalf, we ought to be motivated not to give a little bit of effort or our leftovers, but take the very best part of our lives and lay those lives down for the sake of the name that is above every name.
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We should be reminded from time to time to work as unto the Lord, both in our secular employment, where we are serving not really men, but God through the work that we're called to do, but also in the overtly spiritual aspects of our work like prayer meetings and Bible studies and teachings and listening on a
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Sunday morning and preparing sermons and giving the best that we have for he is worthy.
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Let's turn now to John chapter 21. We're going to read verses 1 to 14, but I want to remind you that John is very strategic in which stories he chooses to tell.
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He does not write down everything he can remember. He chooses particular stories for a purpose.
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So after telling us about the empty tomb, he tells us about Mary Magdalene and he shows us the struggle that she had with some deluded thinking.
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She had begun to believe a lie that the body had been stolen away and this became just like a gnat in her brain that was taking over and bothering her and troubling her with this deluded thought, but faith took
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God at his word. Mary Magdalene came to believe God rather than the lie.
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And so John tells Mary's story in such a way as to remind us that faith is taking
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God at his word. And then he shows us the disciples locked up behind closed doors, barred in fear, and he mentions their fear because they don't want to see the same fate befall them as what happened to their
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Lord. And so they're hiding in a room and Jesus appears in the room and destroys their fear with faith.
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Faith is overcoming fear. It's stepping out even when it's a scary thing to do.
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It involves courage. Genuine faith does. Then he tells the story of who next?
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Doubting Thomas. And Thomas's problem is that he has a spirit of doubt and he's trying to set the terms of belief that he would only believe if he could touch the wounds, put his finger in Jesus' side, otherwise he will not believe.
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But John destroys that manner of thinking with faith by appearing as Jesus appears to Thomas and reveals to him the truth that Jesus is risen.
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So I come to this passage today under the assumption that John wants to do something with the storytelling.
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He wants to accomplish something in granting faith to the hearer that overcomes a certain thing.
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Mary's delusion. The disciples' fear. Thomas's doubt. This morning,
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John is taking aim at idleness. Idleness. Laziness.
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Complacency. Unwillingness to work. John takes aim at idleness and shows us that faith is not a passive thing.
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James chapter 2 does the same thing to correct a misunderstanding of salvation by faith alone.
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Works contribute nothing to our salvation, but a genuine faith will work. James chapter 2.
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In the same way, Peter, in this story, will be to us like a
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Timmy Tebow. Working hard, and you'll see him sweat and strive.
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But John is like the Bob Tebow who is saying to the people of God, this is how you are to work.
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Do not be idle, but get about the business of working for the king. Let's read it first, and then we'll go verse by verse.
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John 21, 1 to 14. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.
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Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Didymus, Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, that's
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James and John who were also fishermen, and two others of his disciples were together.
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Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we will go with you.
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They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking,
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Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish?
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They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.
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So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish.
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That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that, it was the
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Lord. He put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.
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The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, about 100 yards off.
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When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid on it and bread.
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Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught. Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them.
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And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast.
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Now none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.
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This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
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The main idea here is that faith in Jesus Christ gets to work, and in so doing, it increases.
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I'd like us to see four principles from the text, beginning with this one, that the fishermen actually do well to make a decisive move to get to work.
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Have you heard this story taught before, that Peter was being impatient and moved out of turn to go fishing?
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I've heard that, but as I looked at the text, I want you to see it with me. In verses one to three, it looks like it's actually
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Peter's active decision to go get to work, which precipitates the encounter with Jesus.
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In other words, it can't be a bad thing, he was actually doing well. Now you'll say, but Jesus said, wait in Jerusalem until the gift of the
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Father. Well, that was said at the Mount of Olives on the 40th day, reminding them to wait for the 50th day,
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Pentecost, but in this interim, Jesus is appearing to them, and the first two times, it happened in an inner room, remember?
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They're locked behind the door, and he appears. Eight days later, they're in that same room behind the door, so what do you think they're doing for the next days or weeks after the eighth day?
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Pretty logically, they're hanging out in that room, if not exclusively, as much as they can, because the last two times they saw him, it happened in that room, so they're wanting to wait for Jesus, they want to see him again, and they're just sitting there.
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A day goes by, two, three, perhaps a week or two, and as they sit in the room, they're accomplishing nothing.
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They're producing nothing. Until here in the text, verse three,
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Simon Peter has a thought, and I don't think it's out of order, I think it's a biblical and good thought reflecting the good nature of going to work.
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Look what he says. I am going fishing. And right away, some of the others, it turns out seven of them will go, they say, we will go with you.
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And they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Notice that in this way in verse one is recording how it is they get to see
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Jesus. The revelation of Jesus will come on the heels of this decision to get to work.
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Biblically, work is not presented as a curse.
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They say to err is human, but before humans ever erred, they were commanded to work.
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The fall of man in Genesis three actually comes after the command to work in Genesis 2 .15.
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Work is good. Work is part of stewarding the earth, and it is a blessing to be able to do it.
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Proverbs 18 .19 says, whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.
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So you have some brother in the house and he's running about breaking everything and he's violent.
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Perhaps he breaks into houses and destroys things and everyone condemns this brother because he's destructive, but they don't notice the other brother who lays on the couch all day like a couch potato accomplishing nothing.
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It doesn't seem to be so damaging that he just lays around all day. Nobody gets bloody, nobody gets hurt, but Proverbs 18 .9
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is saying these two are brothers, which is a comparison to say to be a destroyer is like laying around and vice versa.
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When you're lazy, when you're not working as unto the Lord, you're destructive.
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You're wasting a stewardship that was given to you. Work is good.
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In fact, Paul will say in 2 Thessalonians 3, 10 to 12, you remember the passage.
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For even when we were with you, we would give you this command. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
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Don't make him your charity case. If he's not willing to work, let him not eat.
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For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies.
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Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
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The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 is described this way in verse 27.
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She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
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Work comes from the Lord as a blessing. And when we embrace that, when we see that work comes from God and to throw yourself into that work is a good thing, not a bad thing, we begin to see many blessings.
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But notice the second point in verses 4 to 6. Our work depends on God's work to make it fruitful.
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Unless the farmer goes out in the field and clears away the stones and prepares the soil and sows the seed, he won't have a harvest.
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He needs to work to bring forth the harvest. But unless the
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Lord takes the work of his hands and establishes the work of his hands, there will be no harvest.
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Psalm 127 verse 1 says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
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Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
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You can sow and you can reap, but you can't make the crop come up.
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You can devote yourself to your craft and be the best that you can, but you can't make yourself successful.
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In fact, you can't even make your heartbeat one more time this morning. We are utterly dependent on the
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Lord of hosts. We can plot along and we can work hard, but unless the
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Lord establishes the work of our hands, it comes to nothing. Notice in our text this morning, verse 3 says, all night long they worked, but they caught nothing.
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And in verses 4 to 6, we get the point of it that Jesus then gives them direction.
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Verse 6 says, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. The result is the
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Lord graciously gives them a haul of fish that they're unable even to bring all of it into the boat.
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Now, of course, we don't want to run off on a tangent at this point into prosperity theology. Thinking that the
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Lord will always give us financial overflow, as long as we're obedient.
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The point in the text is that all night long when they caught nothing, the Lord was faithful.
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And when he granted them much, he was faithful in that way as well. We are to take whatever the
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Lord gives us as a blessing, and that makes us not ultimately the creators of our wealth, but what?
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Stewards. Ever since 2018, sports gambling has been legal in this country.
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And it's become an epidemic of absolutely monumental proportions.
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People think that because they've worked hard, their money is theirs, they're free to fritter it away on gambling.
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For generations and generations, all Christians understood that gambling mocks the good gifts of God.
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Think about this. If you're not the one that brought forth the harvest out of the field, if you're not the one that established the works of your own hands, then the money that you have isn't yours.
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Everything we have belongs to the Lord. It is a gift from God that we are to steward like Adam in the garden and use for his glory.
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But to waste it away is to express contempt to God. Same with frivolous spending.
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In all of these things, we need to recognize that it is the Lord who gives the increase.
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Everything we have, the house that keeps us dry at night on a rainy night, the clothes that keep us warm and covered, the family and the love that we have in homes, every good and perfect gift comes from the
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Father of lights who does not change like shifting shadows. What do you have that you were not given?
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You were a steward. And we can work very hard, but we cannot bring forth anything from the ground apart from his grace.
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This church graciously gave me a sabbatical last summer. I was afraid that coming back from eight weeks off,
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I would be somewhat lazy taking that much time off and then trying to reestablish the habits of my weekly routine.
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So I decided that I would take the first four hours of each day to write.
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And from that came a project, a book called War -Torn Church. But when
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I released the book, meh, nobody was interested, practically nobody.
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Oh, you read it? I could have been discouraged and thought, well, that wasn't worth all those hours of writing.
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And in my own strength, there was nothing more I could do unless I learned to advertise or something like that.
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But I didn't know what was to come of it until the Lord came, inspiring a local pastor to buy hundreds of copies of this book and send them to the pastors in our movement that needed to read it.
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It was the Lord's work. He established the work of my hands in ways that I could not.
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And I was utterly dependent on the Lord to make those fish jump into the net.
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I was done with my part and saw nothing of it, but God then came in and saw fit through this local pastor to send the book to the people that needed to hear what was written in it.
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It was the Lord's doing. Over and over again in your life, and especially in ministry, you will find that however much effort you pour into this ministry, you can't get one person saved, one person baptized, one person discipled.
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But you, walking in the spirit of God, trusting Him, will see time and again the movement of His hand that cannot be explained by your effort.
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So there's two principles at work here. One, you ought to work as unto the
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Lord, giving everything you have, giving Him your best part, not the leftover part of your life.
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But the other side of that coin is no matter how hard you work, it's only the Lord that can bring forth fruitfulness.
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Now there is a third point in verses 7 and 8, and here we see in Peter, his deep devotion and love for Jesus Christ always trumps his love for the earthly possessions.
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There's a ditch that many people in our American culture are steering off into regularly, and I think it's because America has been so blessed with so much prosperity, abundance everywhere, that the result is generations growing up in this prosperity become lazy.
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Hard times produce hard men, but hard men produce soft times, and soft times produce soft men.
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There is a tendency towards laziness when everything is provided. So in this culture, there's this ditch that we see so many young people and older people steering off into, and that is laziness.
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But then overcorrecting, there is another ditch on the other side of the road, and that is the workaholic who finds his identity in his work, and no longer, even the
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Christian, who no longer puts Christ as the centerpiece in life, but gets distracted by work.
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Peter is not like that. Peter is presented here with two opportunities. One is to pull the fish in with his comrades, to work hard together, to bring in the hall, to make a profit, to do work, but I want to see here in the text what he does instead.
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That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. John says, it's Jesus. When Simon Peter heard that it was the
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Lord, he put on his outer garment, which of course is counterintuitive.
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You take off your outer clothes to dive into the ocean. He puts on his coat, which indicates the excitement about Christ himself is so overwhelming to Peter that he's not even thinking straight.
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He has this hall of fish to bring in with his friends, and it couldn't matter to him less.
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He grabs his coat, and he just jumps in the ocean, well, into the Sea of Galilee.
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The Sea of Tiberius here is the Sea of Galilee. It's about eight miles wide, 13 miles long, a big sea, and he just jumps in the water, a freshwater lake, and just swims to shore.
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He's all in to see Jesus. Throws himself into sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, and who do you think
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John wants to honor in this story? It's Peter. Peter's the example here because he loves so much.
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He loves Jesus so much that he's willing to just do irrational things even to just get to him, and the rest think, okay, well,
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I guess we're supposed to bring this in. They don't have the same thought. It's not really condemning of them.
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It's just to honor the love. Peter's love is over the things of this earth.
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Matthew 6 .33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.
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The fish will be brought in. Keep Christ first in your heart. Honor Christ first in your devotion.
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So here we have this third principle that our work must remain subservient to our love for Christ.
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Everything we do and work ought to be as unto him, but very often
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I'm sure many of us in this room would confess that there are times when our work becomes a distraction.
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Our minds become so fixated on the jobs we have to do, providing for our families, doing the best we can to make a living that we start to forget what matters even more and why we were working so hard in the first place.
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We're prone to be distracted, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. I want to read to you quickly a parable that hopefully would be convicting to someone here who's putting work ahead of Christ himself.
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It is in Luke chapter 12, verses 13 to 21. We'll just read it and come right back to our text.
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You can follow along or just listen. Luke 12, 13 to 21.
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Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
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I have to pause there for a second. Can you imagine you're in the presence of the Lord of glory and you're fixated on your inheritance and trying to use
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Jesus to get the money that you want. Lord, protect us from such thinking.
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Jesus said to him, verse 14, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness.
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He wouldn't tell us to guard against it if we weren't prone to it, to covet what your neighbors have, to think, you know,
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I just have to work and get this, that or the other and then I'll be happy.
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Covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
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And he told them a parable saying the land of a rich man produced plentifully.
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And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said,
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I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones.
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And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
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Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
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So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
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This is the reminder that we all need. Your life was made for him.
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And when you keep him and are rich toward him, everything else falls into place. But you lose sight of him and everything will fall apart.
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The harder you strive to build the bigger barn, the less control you'll have over the things that matter most.
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You'll lose everything that you're striving for and be found naked and wanting, having nothing.
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But the man who puts Christ first can trust that Jesus will give you everything you need for life and godliness.
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Don't be distracted by the things of this earth. Now, one last principle from verses 14 and following.
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I'm sorry, nine through 14. The principle here is regarding the spiritual benefits of work.
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I want you to see the connection in this passage between the hard work and the spiritual reward in verse 12.
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Verse nine and following. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid on it.
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That tells me Jesus doesn't need our work. He already had fish on the shore before they even came there.
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He doesn't need us or our work. He can provide everything. They saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid on it and bread.
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And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught.
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Now, pause there. Picture how this scene is unfolding. One of them got there at least 10 to 20 minutes earlier.
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That's Peter. So he's had his moments of embracing the Lord, falling at his feet, worshiping, enjoying sweet fellowship.
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But the other disciples are huffing and puffing. They just had to haul onto the boat all of these fish and then paddle their way to shore, dragging this load because they couldn't even get it all into the boat.
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So they're working hard and surely they're moving as fast as they can. They're sweating.
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They're tired and exhausted. And they come running up to Jesus and he tells them to go get fish.
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So notice in the text, who actually goes? It's Peter.
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Verse 11, Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them.
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Guys, real quick, details like that show you that the Bible is true. These are not made up fables because this has the ring of truth.
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Details that precise number of fish that Peter will bring up.
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It says, and although there were so many, the net was not torn.
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Now, how do you suppose the disciples came to count the fish?
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I think it's evident that the disciples are here and Peter ran to there to get the fish.
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He pulls the load over to where Jesus was.
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Now, when Jesus said to go, what did he command? Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.
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Peter comes back with no less than 19 fish per person.
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That's a lot of fish. And so I think what happened is when Peter was commanded to, was told to go, when the disciples were told to go and Peter ran off, he went with that same eagerness with which he put on the coat.
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He was commanded and he wanted to show his devotion and he ran for the fish. He grabbed so many of them and pulled them over his shoulder.
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This is no weak man. 153 large fish, at least four to 500 pounds that he's dragging and hauling over his shoulder.
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And I can just picture the scene that the disciples look back and watch this and start cracking up.
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Look at Peter. Jesus asked for some fish and he's got the entire net filled with 153 fish.
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So he gets back to them and when it's time to eat and they stop and think, one of them says,
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Peter, you got a lot of fish there. How many did you choose to bring? Because many of them would be dumped in the boat.
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He brought 153 fish. So there they stand counting them just to remember it.
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Peter, 153 fish. But what does that say about this man? A very important lesson.
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In verse 12, none of them at this point doubted. They never asked, who are you?
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They knew it was the Lord. Spiritually, they have grown in their faith.
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Now there's not doubt. They just know. It all came from their work.
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But picture Peter, the same diligence that you see when he's willing to dive in the water, when he's hauling this load of fish, picture him with 153 fish hoisted on his shoulder.
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It's almost like Samson. He's a workhorse. The point is to say to us that we ought to work like that.
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In Mark chapter nine, the disciples tried a little bit of spiritual work.
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There was a demon -possessed boy, and they tried to take authority over the demon in the name of Jesus, and every one of them failed.
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And then they brought that boy to Jesus. And the father said, if you can do something, would you help him?
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And Jesus said, if I can? With God, all things are possible. And the man said, well,
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I believe. Help my unbelief. And Jesus mercifully cast the demon out of that boy.
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But what many people miss is that afterwards, the disciples came back to Jesus and said, how come we failed to cast out the demon?
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Why wouldn't it obey us when we tried to drive it out? And in Mark 9, 29,
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Jesus says, this kind only comes out by prayer.
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And some translations say, and fasting. Fasting is like an intensification of prayer.
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You're gonna skip a meal and devote yourself to intercession. It is intensive prayer.
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So whether you take this translation or that, the principle remains, there is an intensive work that needed to be done to drive that demon out.
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Christian, you need to be reminded of this, as do I, that to work in the
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Lord's harvest field, requires intensity and diligence, the way
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Peter was dragging that net of 153 fish. That's how we ought to pray.
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When we see a loved one who's deceived and deluded, maybe wandering off as a prodigal, we come to a prayer meeting on Sunday night and we travail for that person.
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We persevere in prayer. It's not like we can just say, in Jesus name be gone.
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Well, I've used his name and now my work is done. The point in Mark 9, 29 is the same here.
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There is work involved in the Christian life and it is spiritual work. Paul was the perfect model of this.
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And he says, imitate me as I imitate Christ, join with others and following my example.
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Paul is a man who labored and labored for the sake of the name. Jesus, we're told in Mark 1, 35, would get up before it was, the sun was up, while it was still dark and he would go off on his own and pray.
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Then he would spend the day ministering until his body was spent and he spent his body on the cross, an example, as well as a substitutionary sacrifice.
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The example of Christ is one of diligent, hard work, but we live in a lazy generation.
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If your faith is stagnant, this comes out only by prayer and fasting.
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If your faith is stagnant, get to a prayer meeting on Sunday night at six o 'clock and pray with your brothers and sisters and work as unto the
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Lord. There is a spiritual aspect to our work. So in closing, Colossians 3, 23 and 24, whatever you do, work heartily as for the
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Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
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You are serving the Lord Christ. I'm gonna close in prayer and I'm gonna ask each of you to take a moment to allow this word that was preached today from the text to speak to your heart.
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Which of these principles would God convict you with today? Have you been lazy in your work, your secular work that you use to provide for your family, for yourself?
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Have you been lazy? Have you been a bad steward through gambling?
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Maybe someone here needs to repent of misusing the funds that the
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Lord has given you. Have you put your work ahead of the
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Lord and become distracted from the things of God? Or are you like Peter that would dive in and put him first and leave the fish behind?
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And lastly, do you need to work the way Peter lugged those fish to have a spiritual renewal?
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Let's take a moment to pray. Father, we do come to you now in the name of Jesus and we recognize that no work that we bring can earn anything from you,
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Father. It is all by grace that we are saved. But for those of us who believe, we have a faith that works and so we pray that you would stir up our faith,
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God. That we would go out and do work in your name to bring glory to the
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Son of God. That we would work as unto Christ. That in our jobs, in everything that we are called to do, in sports, the way
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Tim Tebow served you by playing football, by working out. I pray that we would work that way as Christians, as men and women who love the
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Lord. That we would not be lazy. I pray against a spirit of laziness in Jesus' name.
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Motivate us to love and to good deeds, to hard work.
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Father, I pray for our stewardship. That we would recognize that every fish that jumps into the net comes from you.
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And we would steward your gifts well. Father, I pray for the distracted worker, too interested in building bigger barns, forgetting his first love.
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Bring conviction, repentance, and change the priorities of this one this morning.
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And Lord, for all of us to follow the example of Peter in our spiritual work.
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And that we would reap the spiritual benefit of increased faith as we see you in our work.
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I pray, Lord, that you would help us to be devoted. According to Ecclesiastes 2 .24,
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there is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.
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This also I saw is from the hand of God. Reveal your hand in this way.
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In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
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That saved a wretch like me
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I once was lost, but now am found
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Was blind, but now I see
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T 'was grace that taught my heart to fear
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And fixed my wounds with ease
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How precious did that grace appear
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The hour I first believed
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My chains are gone, I've been set free
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My God, my Savior, has ransomed me
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And like a flood, His mercy rains
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Unending love, amazing grace
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Has promised good to me
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His word my hope secures
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He will my shield and portion be
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As long as life endures
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My chains are gone, I've been set free
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My God, my Savior, has ransomed me
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And like a flood, His mercy rains
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Unending love, amazing grace
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The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
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The sun forbear to shine
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But God who has called me here below Will be forever mine
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Will be forever mine
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You are forever mine
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I do not consider that I have made it my own
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But one thing I do Forgetting what is behind And straining forward to what lies ahead